How Athens City Schools automated identity life cycle management with ADManager Plus and PowerSchool integration

Business challenges

This process was time-consuming, error-prone, and difficult to scale.

• Manual provisioning of thousands of student accounts at the start of each academic year
• High dependency on an outdated, custom-built integration that was difficult to maintain
• Complex data structure in PowerSchool, including multi-school staff affiliations
• Frequent errors and delays in account creation and updates
• Lack of flexibility for internal teams to manage or modify workflows

A previously implemented custom solution added further challenges. It relied heavily on a single developer, making it expensive and difficult to maintain. When support for the solution ended, the process became unreliable, forcing the team back to manual operations.

Additionally, integrating with PowerSchool presented technical complexity due to its nested data structure, multiple user attributes, and varying requirements for students and staff.

The solution

Athens City Schools implemented ManageEngine ADManager Plus to automate identity life cycle management and streamline Active Directory operations.

The solution integrates with PowerSchool, using a custom-built framework that processes and transforms data before provisioning. This enables accurate handling of complex requirements such as grade-based student provisioning and multi-school staff management.

With automation workflows in place, the district now manages onboarding, modifications, and offboarding efficiently while ensuring users receive the right access at the right time.

The implementation was led by ManageEngine's Implementation Manager Harish, whose deep technical expertise helped translate complex requirements into a scalable solution.

The outcome

• Fully automated student life cycle
• Accurate multi-school staff provisioning
• Empowered IT teams
• Elimination of manual errors
• Scalable and future-ready architecture

About ADManager Plus

ADManager Plus is an identity governance and administration (IGA) solution that simplifies identity management, ensures security, and improves compliance. With ADManager Plus, manage the user life cycle from provisioning to deprovisioning, run access certification campaigns, orchestrate identity management across enterprise applications, and protect data on your enterprise platforms with regular backups. Use over 200 reports to gain valuable insights into identities and their access rights. Improve the efficiency of your IGA operations with workflows, automations, and role-based access control policies. ADManager Plus' Android and iOS applications help with on-the-go AD and Azure AD management. For more information about ADManager Plus, visit https://www.manageengine.com/products/ad-manager/.

About OnboardPro

OnboardPro is a ManageEngine service that provides solution implementation to clients upon request. This service includes the installation and customized configuration of ManageEngine solutions. It enables clients to seamlessly begin work without worrying about the complexities of product installation, deployment, and use. Every client environment is unique and requires additional support beyond the basic installation and standard features. With custom onboarding, clients have the option to engage a team of product experts to manage the installation, implementation, customization, and training based on their business needs. For more information, visit https://www.manageengine.com/onboarding/manageengine-onboardpro-iam-and-siem-professional-service.html.